READER’S CORNER: Help C.B. tourism take off

To more fully develop the tourism industry in northern Inverness County, the proposed expansion of the Margaree Airport should proceed. This is a modern necessity for the type of tourist that this area can attract, and if developed properly, it could benefit the economy of the entire Cabot Trail and parts of Route 19.

The days of driving the family station wagon with camper in tow from Ontario or the U.S. to visit (faraway) Cape Breton are giving way to a new kind of tourist, one with more resources but a tighter schedule. They’d rather fly, for an expanding list of reasons, of which golf is the most prominent example. There are many other things that this class of tourist could do in this part of the Island and beyond, including outdoor recreation, distillery/winery tour(s), tuna fishing, music and cultural festivals, and taking a tour of the Trail.

Having an airport for primarily tourism purposes would not be unique. Caribbean resort clusters have dedicated airports; small, relatively informal places designed to be welcoming to tourists, complete with buses waiting to pick you up. Such co-ordination and convenience is greeted with great satisfaction by tourists in those instances, as it would be here. Disembarking passengers would be closer to key travel destinations, such as Inverness, Cheticamp, Margaree itself, and the Cabot Trail, and will be more likely to recommend the area to friends, and return themselves.

It is such a glaring contradiction for the Cabot Trail to be the recipient of so much international praise as a visual destination full of active potential, while at the same time businesses all along the Trail are struggling. Lack of easy access is a key barrier to growth that should be eliminated. (The quality of the road itself along the Cabot Trail is no doubt also a deterrent to repeat visitors. If the drive is so key to the overall experience, the road quality should really be above average.)

If we are to fulfil our great potential on this Island, we need to think in terms of abundance, not scarcity. We must be confident that targeted infrastructure investments can grow the overall economic ecosystem, rather than believing that the present state of affairs represents an economic end point. Investing in the Margaree airport would display this confidence, fuel economic growth in tourism, and thus help improve our collective quality of life.